June 25, 2004

Everybody Dies by Michael McGarrity

You know what irritates me most about this book? It wasn't the action-packed scenarios, which were great and quite riveting. It wasn't the suspense, the thrill, or the flow of words that kept you turning page after page. No, what irritated me the most was that somewhere in that wonderful novel, a preposition was crossed out in pencil and replaced by another word, another preposition. And this is not the first book from the Takoma Park library I've read that had words crossed out all over the place and replaced in cursive or block handwriting by someone who has read the book before me. Listen, guys, we all know that most Takoma Park residents are highly intelligent, very sophisticated, and probably more wordly and much wiser than I will ever be. But, guys, you are defacing a BOOK. And that is sad. Because you will never pick up a book that is perfectly written. Here and there, a word will be misprinted; a letter left out; or any other myriad of mistakes will appear in any given book that you pick up in any library in this country. I know I don't speak for all book readers when I say I just want to keep on reading, without being distracted by your intellectual insights. Hey, there may be more people out there who will gleefully agree that brand-new, beautifully hard-bound books hot off the press should be marked up, edited, and then returned to the library where undoubtedly your genius will shine through the print by your corrections. I'm not one of those people. I am not impressed by your corrections; I would prefer to read a book the way it came to the shelf. I can figure out the grammatical errors, the misspelled words, and what not. I don't need your help. So please, guys, leave the books alone. Most of us readers .... well, we can figure it out. Thanks for your help, but no thanks. And that is just my two cents about it.